THE DISCOVERY by Dan Walsh

Gerard Warner was not only a literary giant whose suspense novels sold in the millions, he was also a man devoted to his family, especially his wife of nearly 60 years. When he dies he leaves his Charleston estate to his grandson, Michael, an aspiring writer himself. Michael settles in to write his own first novel and discovers an unpublished manuscript his grandfather had written, something he’d kept hidden from everyone but clearly intended Michael to find. Michael begins to read an exciting tale about Nazi spies and sabotage, but something about this story is different from all of Gerard Warner’s other books. It’s actually a love story.

As Michael delves deeper into the story he discovers something that has the power to change not only his future but his past as well.

Laced with suspense and intrigue, The Discovery is a richly woven novel that explores the incredible sacrifices that must be made to forge the love of a lifetime. 

OK, this is a novel within a novel, never my favorite trope.  The grandson finds an unpublished novel written by his wildly famous grandfather, and lucky us, we readers get to read it.  But here’s the thing.  It is written in the same meh writing style of the author of this book, and there is no way the grandpop would have been famous for bleh writing like that.

It is a story of a spy who came in from the cold and lived a life basically of lies, and we are supposed to get all teary eyed and sniffly at the story.

A two star effort.  Oh well, they can’t all be home runs.

THE BABA YAGA by Leon Shure

The first book in the Myth-steries series, mysteries with a touch of the strange. A young doctor, Adam Karl, who has perceptual problems, and his “seeing eye woman,” Kayko Brasen, are asked by a Chicago Police Detective, Michael Dunne, to get testimony from an autistic child who is the only witness to his mother’s murder. Stalked, Dr Karl discovers frightening secrets about his own family.

Despite the damning with faint praise reviews obviously written by friends and/or family of the author, this was one of those odd books that make no sense, have only a tenuous hold on reality, but yet keeps you reading anyway.

The protagonist is a neurosurgeon just finishing his residency and beginning a practice.  BUT …. he is autistic, and has a condition called Prosopagnosia,  a neurological disorder characterized by the inability to recognize faces. Prosopagnosia is also known as face blindness or facial agnosia. However, this guy also cannot see other people’s facial reactions, such as smiling, etc, so his uncle hires a woman to go around with him and whisper in his ear what the people look like and their expressions. WTF?  Even in his medical practice?  He also tells us in his first person narrative that his own voice and face have no affect, he sounds like a robot.

He is extremely wealthy, but the huge estate where he lives seems to have only a butler type person, a housekeeper, and one cleaning person, and a driver.

The police contact him to see if he can make contact with a little autistic boy who witnessed his mother’s murder. Then the whole book goes on and on about all kinds of other stuff, and he doesn’t make contact with the little boy until almost the end, and it is a failure.  Meanwhile, there is a whole conspiracy thing about a drug being developed — a kind of controlled virus, his helper woman get kidnapped, and after a bunch of other totally unrealistic events is found and rescued, and after a dose of something to reverse the effects of the drug she was given, is suddenly just fine and dandy.

Every character is just absolutely over the top, and the ending is that the family business seems to be a world-wide crime syndicate or something, led by his elderly grandmother, Baba Yaga.

I mean, really.  Really.

PRAISE JERUSALEM! by Augusta Trobaugh

This story is about the lives of three elderly Southern women who have been thrust into a concerted effort to find their “New Jerusalem” – a utopia of heavenly perfection. In this case, however, it is the small town of Jerusalem, Georgia, to which the women journey, each expecting to find happiness at last. But to find their utopia, they must overcome the social and racial estrangements that isolate them from each other. Mamie Johnson, an African-American woman who is fleeing from an abusive relationship, desires an existence in which she will be free not only from abuse but also from centuries-old racial stereotypes. Maybelline, in exquisitely polite Southern terms, “has not had advantages, ” but despite her lack of “good blood, ” formal education, or fine manners, she determinedly pursues a course of service to the others. Miss Amelia, a small-town dowager who finds herself suddenly bereft of the social and economic security she has enjoyed all her life, makes a dual journey – one in the company of Mamie and Maybelline, and another, more reluctant journey back in memory to a summer of her childhood. 

Sweet story, with just a smidge of the paranormal, as Miss Amelia tells of her childhood and being able to understand the glossolalia of an elderly and sick woman and pass the translation on to the woman’s family in order to get her baptized before she dies of her disease.

It seems to fit in with the trope of elderly ladies setting off on their own to find a home in a distant and never before seen town, either alone or with a friend or friends.

I enjoyed it, as it gave us a picture of a disappearing lifestyle of the genteel American south.

A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC by V. E. Schwab

Kell is one of the last Antari—magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel Londons; Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black.

Kell was raised in Arnes—Red London—and officially serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador, traveling between the frequent bloody regime changes in White London and the court of George III in the dullest of Londons, the one without any magic left to see.

Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they’ll never see. It’s a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now seeing firsthand.

After an exchange goes awry, Kell escapes to Grey London and runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure.

Now perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they’ll first need to stay alive. 

A thriller about magic and stuff.  Once again, we have a people who are able to create parallel cities and close them with magic, but haven’t figured out how to have indoor plumbing, flush toilets, or even electricity.  You would think some magician along the line would come up with an idea for lighting a room without having to use kerosene lanterns, wouldn’t you?  Why are all stories about magic set in some sort of faux medieval England? Kell is given some mysterious stone which creates stuff.  The poverty stricken pickpocket girl steals it from him and so what does she make from it?  Money?  Gold? Food? Nah.  A sword.  Gimme a break.

Oh, well, nice story if you are into stories about magic.

 

THE CELIBATE MOUSE by Diana Hockley

Police procedural meets cozy mystery meets rom-com, set in Australia.

Shell-shocked from a tragedy at work and an acrimonious domestic upheaval, Detective Senior Sergeant Susan Prescott flees town to recuperate, but fate has other ideas.

Her plan to house-sit for relatives in a rural community is shattered when Susan witnesses a very public murder within an hour of her arrival. Things turn sinister after an encounter with an elderly lady; a hint of a long ago murder is not a secret with which Susan wants to be entrusted.

Enter Detective Inspector David Maguire whom she has not seen for thirteen years and who is assigned to the case, which sends her into a further tailspin. Against her better judgment, Susan is drawn inexorably into the investigation, surrounded by menacing strangers whose private agendas threaten her safety, and soon, her life.

OK, the David Maquire who appears is her first husband and father of her twin teenage daughters.  Yeah.  I hear ya.  All the characters are over-the-top, from the one nasty-mouth daughter, to the believably handsome ex, to her extremely overbearing mother, to Maguire’s squeeze from another city who is also unbelievably overbearing and stalks him to this city, to the point of walking into Susan’s house not only not invited but without knocking in order to berate both Susan, whom she does not know, and David, who has been trying to break up with her.

Oh, yeah, and there is the current spouse, also overbearing, and the elderly wife of an elderly knight who pushes everyone around.

I can’t figure out how this supposedly formidable Detective Senior Sergeant just lets everybody boss her around, yell at her without consequences, and walk all over her.

Good and interesting mystery, but the whole rest of it was just plain stupid.

The title comes from finding a mommy mouse under the sink having lined her nest with photo evidence of the case, and one character saying if there is one, there are relatives, because there is no such thing as a celibate mouse.

BRIDGE OF SIGHS by Richard Russo

Louis Charles (“Lucy”) Lynch has spent all his sixty years in upstate Thomaston, New York, married to the same woman, Sarah, for forty of them, their son now a grown man. Like his late, beloved father, Lucy is an optimist, though he’s had plenty of reasons not to be—chief among them his mother, still indomitably alive. Yet it was her shrewdness, combined with that Lynch optimism, that had propelled them years ago to the right side of the tracks and created an “empire” of convenience stores about to be passed on to the next generation.

Lucy and Sarah are also preparing for a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Italy, where his oldest friend, a renowned painter, has exiled himself far from anything they’d known in childhood. In fact, the exact nature of their friendship is one of the many mysteries Lucy hopes to untangle in the “history” he’s writing of his hometown and family. And with his story interspersed with that of Noonan, the native son who’d fled so long ago, the destinies building up around both of them (and Sarah, too) are relentless, constantly surprising, and utterly revealing.

Richard Russo is the author of Empire Falls, and Nobody’s Fool, (you know, the 1994 movie starring Paul Newman). both of which I read before I started the blog, and Mohawk, which you can read about here.   As in all his work, his characters are quirky, and it is all about their lives in a small town.  There have been some concerns about his treatment of non-whites, in that they always seem to appear in order to help out the Caucasian characters, or to serve as a learning opportunity, and don’t seem to exist in their own right and personage.  Also, some folks (OK, some female reviewers) feel his female characters are not defined enough — they are either tough types or softies.  Well, I agree about the non-white characters, but not so sure about the women characters, as it seems I know a whole lot of both types.  Not telling you which one I am.

OH, and BTW, The Bridge of Sighs refers to  the Venice pont which prisoners traverse on their way to jail, usually for good. The sighs are the prisoners bemoaning their dark fate.

I really like Russo for his storytelling, and the stories themselves.  I find all his books page turners.

I now have the follow up to Nobody’s Fool, which is Everybody’s Fool, and that is in the queue to be read.  Along with 2,874 other books.  hahaha

EVERYTHING BURNS by Christopher Klim

Boot Means is a photojournalist who is trying to find the deadly pyromaniac who is terrorizing Concho Texas. Oscar Van Hise is revealed as the arsonist who is systematically working out his vengeance on the town and the people that he holds responsible for his messed up life. His masterpiece will be destroying the Concho Art Museum. Will Boot figure it out before it is too late?

The story moves quickly, at times taking us into the disturbing mind of a pyromaniac. Boot also ends up in a romantic relationship that is simply no good for him or her.

Great read, and not exactly a mystery, as we know who done it immediately, but it is more about the orphaned Boot who has come in contact with his father in a nearby Texas town to the fires.   It did not end on a happy note, particularly, which was a nice change, a bit more realistic.  It is the second in a three volume series.

 

TENT OF BLUE by Rachael Preston

The official plot description:  Anton is turning 16 this summer of 1952, but his mother’s plans are getting in the way of his dreams. For a start, she’s sold the Packard to set up a ballet school, the Packard he was planning on learning to drive. And now she’s bought a piano and expects him to accompany her classes. But after Anton falls for the girl upstairs and then rescues his neighbour, a WWI flying ace, from a tumble, life seems suddenly rich with possibilities. That Jasmine is years older and worlds away in sophistication, and his war hero is a grumpy old man in a wheelchair being held a virtual prisoner by his daughter, are details Anton at first refuses to dwell on. But when the old man gives him a bicycle, Anton returns the favour by planning a fantastical escape to Salt Spring Island.

Anton’s tale is interwoven with his mother’s, whose story begins in 1935 when she is fourteen and filled with dreams of dancing like Isadora Duncan. Grotesquely mistreated by her alcoholic mother, Yvonne finds fleeting freedom with a Russian-born dancer but then falls prey to manipulative impresario Harold Crouch. When mother and son escape to Canada, Harold tracks them down. But then his cruelty goes too far and Yvonne finally pushes back. In one reckless moment she takes the liberating step that makes the present possible. Tent of Blue is a story of captivity and escape, of discovering the strength to fight back against the world and seize freedom. 

Yeah, that about covers it. Coming -of-age meets Gypsy Rose Lee.

Nice read.

THE CONFUSION by Neal Stephenson

In the year 1689, a cabal of Barbary galley slaves — including one Jack Shaftoe, aka King of the Vagabonds, aka Half-Cocked Jack — devises a daring plan to win freedom and fortune. A great adventure ensues — a perilous race for an enormous prize of silver … nay, gold … nay, legendary gold.

In Europe, the exquisite and resourceful Eliza, Countess de la Zeur, is stripped of her immense personal fortune by France’s most dashing privateer. Penniless and at risk from those who desire either her or her head (or both), she is caught up in a web of international intrigue, even as she desperately seeks the return of her most precious possession.

Meanwhile, Newton and Leibniz continue to propound their grand theories as their infamous rivalry intensifies, stubborn alchemy does battle with the natural sciences, dastardly plots are set in motion … and Daniel Waterhouse seeks passage to the Massachusetts colony in hopes of escaping the madness into which his world has descended.

“When a thing such as wax, or gold, or silver, turns liquid from heat, we say that it has fused,” Eliza said to her son, “and when such liquids run together and mix, we say they are con-fused.”  _ from the book.

This second volume takes place during the end of the Nine Years’ War (and the period shortly after) and explores the beginning of the Enlightenment, complete with politics, war, modern economics, science and the scientific method, currency, information technology, trade, religion and cryptography. Usually, when Newton or Leibniz are discoursing, Stephenson is waxing philosophic about atoms, thinking machines, or currency.  This time the plot is more straight forward and adventure-oriented (and incidentally a lot more fun than Quicksilver), but again the characters main purpose for their existence is to discourse on matters political, religious, scientific, and economic.

Again, another loooooong book, (the three volumes of the Cycle together comprising 3,000 pages), and you either love it or hate it, because if historical fiction with a dash of sci-fi mysticism isn’t your thing, it isn’t your thing.

I do love Neal Stephenson, yes indeedy.  On now to the final volume, The System of the World.

A LITTLE LIFE by Hanya Yanagihara

When four classmates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they’re broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their center of gravity.

Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever.

Another long long read, but a compelling one.  However, it does have its flaws.

All four miraculously become super powers in their respective fields.  They all get wealthy, have lots of do-re-mi to splash around, travel all over the world, and all have these wonderfully fabulous apartments … in NYC, no less.  And in spite of his awful childhood, Jude somehow becomes an adept at piano playing, cooking, singing, abstract advanced math, and the law.  One wonders as one learns of his abusive childhood of forced prostitution from a very early age, just how all that learning, all of which takes years and years to accomplish, came about.

All his friends are basically enablers, even as they know about his cutting, and other barely disguised attempts at suicide. You begin to wonder why they are friends at all, none of them having any compatible interests, and Jude himself never seeming to offer anything other than his pain.   His life long doctor never reports any of this, and does many things that seem basically not quite ethical in the name of friendship, never hospitalizes Jude in the psych ward when clearly he should have a number of times.

It seems to be the kind of book where if you are able to take a lot of the factors that I cite simply on faith without questioning them, that you will love love love the book.  If you, however, have problems with its excessive length, those inconsistencies, those improbabilities, then you will hate it.